Misplaced Pages

#210789

132-623: In 429 AD, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Hispania to North Africa. They advanced eastward, conquering the coastal regions of what is now Tunisia , and Algeria . In 435, the Western Roman Empire , then ruling North Africa, allowed the Vandals to settle in the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania when it became clear that the Vandal army could not be defeated by Roman military forces. In 439,

264-536: A Visigothic hermitage, Santa Maria de Lara . It also embodied the continuity of Roman order. Native Hispano-Romans continued to run the civil administration and Latin continued to be the language of government and of commerce on behalf of the Visigoths. Religion was the most persistent source of friction between the Chalcedonian ( Catholic ) native Hispano-Romans and their Arian Visigothic overlords, whom

396-521: A granary and a major source of metals for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold , tin , silver , lead , wool , wheat , olive oil , wine , fish , and garum . Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use today. The Romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists had all achieved

528-413: A hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying waste all before them. Now, Tiridates was king of that country, who met them and fought them but was lucky not to have been taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a noose over him and would soon have drawn him in, had he not immediately cut

660-739: A large part of the Vandal army and navy to Sardinia to deal with a rebellion by the Gothic nobleman Godas . This enabled the armies of the Byzantine Empire, commanded by Belisarius , to land unopposed 10 miles (16 km) from Carthage in the Summer of 533. Gelimer quickly assembled an army and met Belisarius at the Battle of Ad Decimum . The Vandals were prevailing until Gelimer's brother Ammatas and nephew Gibamund fell in battle. Gelimer then lost heart and fled. Belisarius quickly took Carthage as

792-516: A move which coincides to the Vandal occupation of Carthage late the same year. Rome made attempts to restore control in 446 and 458. Success was temporary. After the death of emperor Majorian in 461 Roman authority collapsed except in Tarraconensis the northeastern quadrant of the peninsula. The Visigoths, a Germanic people , whose kingdom was located in southwest Gaul, took the province when they occupied Tarragona in 472. They also confined

924-476: A rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span , meaning 'hidden', and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land". Other theories have been proposed. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania of Iberian origin and derived it from the pre-Roman name for Seville , Hispalis . This was revived for instance by the etymologist Eric Partridge (in his work Origins ) who felt that this might strongly hint at an ancient name for

1056-539: A simultaneous assault, commanded by Marcellinus, would retake Sicily. The Emperor assembled his fleet in 460, but Gaiseric learned of the impending assault and "put a scorched earth policy into effect in Mauretania – scouring the land and poisoning the wells in advance of the planned imperial offensive." In addition, Gaiseric led his own fleet against Majorian's force and defeated the Romans at Cartagena. In 468, both

1188-593: A struggle for the throne between the Visigothic kings Agila and Athanagild , the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent an army under the command of Liberius to take back the peninsula from the Visigoths. This short-lived reconquest recovered only a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Baetica , known as Spania . Under the Visigoths, culture

1320-446: A veneer of normality. From 477 onward, the Vandals produced their own coinage, although it was restricted to bronze and silver low-denomination coins. Although the low-denomination imperial money was replaced, the high-denomination was not, demonstrating in the words of Merrills "reluctance to usurp the imperial prerogative". Gaiseric died on 25 January 477, 88 years of age. According to the law of succession which he had promulgated,

1452-531: Is "little doubt" that the initial invasion was "brutally violent." He has also argued along with Richard Miles that the Vandals initially targeted the Nicene Church for financial rather than religious reasons, seeking to rob it of its wealth. Once Gaiseric secured his hold over Numidia and Mauretania in the treaty of 435, he worked "to destroy the power of the Nicene church in his new territories by seizing

SECTION 10

#1732766190211

1584-552: Is cognate with the name of the country Īrān (from the gen. plur. *aryānām ). The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century CE onward under similar names: Latin : Alānī ; Greek : Ἀλανοί Alanoi ; Chinese : 阿蘭聊 Alanliao ( Pinyin ; Alan + Liu ) in the 2nd century, 阿蘭 Alan in the 3rd century, later Alanguo ( 阿蘭國 ); Parthian and Middle Persian Alānān (plural); Arabic Alān (singular); Syriac Alānayē ; Classical Armenian Alank' ; Georgian Alaneti ('country of

1716-592: Is considered to have been decisive in hastening the decline of the Western Roman Empire. However, their departure allowed the Romans to recover 90% of the Iberian peninsula until 439. After the departure of the Vandals only the Sueves remained in a northwest corner of the peninsula. Roman rule which had survived in the eastern quadrant was restored over most of Iberia until the Sueves occupied Mérida in 439,

1848-594: Is mentioned for the first time in the work of the Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus , in the 1st century BC. Although Hispania is the Latin root for the modern name Spain , the words Spanish for Hispanicus or Hispanic , or Spain for Hispania , are not easily interchangeable, depending on context. The Estoria de España ('The History of Spain') written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio ('the Wise'), between 1260 and 1274, during

1980-751: Is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North-Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians , and possibly related to the Massagetae . Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on

2112-515: Is unknown. In the 5th century, there was a decline in trade across the Mediterranean as well. When arriving in Africa, the Vandals confiscated land held by senators and gave the land to themselves. Those who had their land confiscated ended up keeping their rights. Those who lived in the territory prior and were wealthy kept their wealth and power. Hispania Hispania was the Roman name for

2244-587: The Reconquista ('reconquest') of Spain, is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish using the words España ('Spain') and Españoles ('Spaniards') to refer to Medieval Hispania. The use of Latin Hispania , Castilian España , Catalan Espanya and Old French Espaigne , among others, to refer to Roman Hispania or Visigothic Hispania was common throughout all

2376-679: The Aorsi ( Ancient Greek Αορσιοι ) ) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as Alan (< LHC: * ʔɑ-lɑn 阿蘭) Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period . The 3rd century Weilüe also notes that Yancai

2508-731: The Aorsi , a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea , mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo . The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the Hou Hanshu , 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the Yancai nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" < LHC * ʔɨam - sɑ ; a.k.a. Hesu (闔蘇), compare Latin Abzoae , identified with

2640-593: The Arian faction within the royal family led a revolt, and Hoamer's cousin Gelimer (530–534) became king. Hilderic, Hoamer, and their relatives were thrown into prison. In 533, Hilderic was executed when the Byzantine army approached Carthage. Byzantine Emperor Justinian I declared war, with the stated intention of restoring Hilderic to the Vandal throne. While an expedition was en route, Gelimer's brother Tzazo led

2772-643: The Carthaginians , the Iberians , the Lusitanians , the Gallaecians and other Celts . It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC–AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (see Cantabrian Wars ). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous. Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where there are references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after

SECTION 20

#1732766190211

2904-1185: The Celtiberians from relieving the Roman siege of Contrebia ). Through the 2nd century AD warm temperatures dominated particularly in the mountains along the north coast , punctuated by further cool spells from c.  155 to 180. After about 200 the temperatures fluctuated, trending toward cool. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . Country Studies . Federal Research Division . Other classical sources have been accessed second-hand (see references above): Footnotes Citations Alans Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Alans ( Latin : Alani ) were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what

3036-749: The Cro-Magnon ) migrated and recolonized all of Western Europe . In this period one finds the Azilian culture in Southern France and Northern Iberia (to the mouth of the Douro river), as well as the Muge Culture in the Tagus valley. The Neolithic brought changes to the human landscape of Iberia (from the 5th millennium BC onwards), with the development of agriculture and the beginning of

3168-729: The European Megalith Culture . This spread to most of Europe and had one of its oldest and main centres in the territory of modern Portugal , as well as the Chalcolithic and Beaker cultures. During the 1st millennium BC, in the Bronze Age , the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of Indo-European languages occurred. These were later (7th and 5th centuries BC) followed by others that can be identified as Celts . Eventually urban cultures developed in southern Iberia, such as Tartessos , influenced by

3300-739: The Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe . The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on the culture of the Goths, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art. (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before

3432-921: The Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375  CE , many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes . They crossed the Rhine in 406   CE along with the Vandals and Suebi , settling in Orléans and Valence . Around 409 CE they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula , settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis . The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by

3564-526: The Iberian Peninsula . Under the Roman Republic , Hispania was divided into two provinces : Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior . During the Principate , Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania , while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis . Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, initially as Hispania Nova, which

3696-565: The Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus , Claudius II and Aurelian .) After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns . Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like

3828-912: The Late Middle Ages . A document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as Gracien d'Espaigne . Latin expressions using Hispania or Hispaniae (e.g. omnes reges Hispaniae ) were often used in the Middle Ages, while the Spain Romance languages of the Reconquista use the Romance version interchangeably. In the James Ist Chronicle Llibre dels fets , written between 1208 and 1276, there are many instances of this. The borders of modern Spain do not coincide with those of

3960-527: The Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody dared make any resistance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up everything he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving

4092-524: The Phoenician colonization of coastal Mediterranean Iberia, with strong competition from the Greek colonization. These two processes defined Iberia's cultural landscape – Mediterranean towards the southeast and Continental in the northwest. Roman armies invaded the Iberian peninsula in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against

Vandal Kingdom - Misplaced Pages Continue

4224-628: The Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage . Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ʾī šāpān ( 𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤐𐤍 ) of Hebrew ʾī šāfān ( Hebrew : אִי שָׁפָן ) meaning literally 'island of the rabbit ', referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and

4356-773: The Pontic–Caspian steppe , the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century  CE . At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire . From 215 to 250  CE the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe , thereby assimilating a sizeable portion of the associated Alans. Upon

4488-650: The Roman province of Hispania or of the Visigothic Kingdom , and thus medieval Spain and modern Spain exist in separate contexts. The Latin term Hispania , often used during Antiquity and the Low Middle Ages , like with Roman Hispania, as a geographical and political name, continued to be used geographically and politically in the Visigothic Spania , as shown in the expression laus Hispaniae , 'Praise to Hispania', to describe

4620-490: The Sarmatian Alans moved into Iberia in September or October 409 at the request of Gerontius , a Roman usurper. The Suevi established a kingdom in Gallaecia in what is today modern Galicia and northern Portugal . The Alans' allies, the Hasdingi Vandals, also established a kingdom in another part of Gallaecia. The Alans established a kingdom in Lusitania – modern Alentejo and Algarve , in Portugal . The Silingi Vandals briefly occupied parts of South Iberia in

4752-409: The Vandalic conquest of Roman Africa . Although their numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates, based on Procopius 's assertion that the Vandals and Alans numbered 80,000 when they moved to North Africa, Peter Heather estimates that they could have fielded an army of around 15,000–20,000. According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Bonifacius ,

4884-402: The Visigoths in 418 CE, subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals . In 428   CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa , where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534. Eventually in the 9th century those Alans who remained under Hunnic rule established

5016-593: The basilicas of three of the most intransigent bishops and expelling them from their cities." Similar policies continued with the capture of Carthage in 439 as the Vandal king made efforts to simultaneously advance the Arian church and oppress Nicene practices. Heather notes that four major churches within the city walls were confiscated for the Arians, and a ban was imposed on all Nicene services in areas in which Vandals settled; Gaiseric also had Quodvultdeus , Bishop of Carthage, and many of his clergy exiled from Africa and refused "to allow replacements to be ordained… so that

5148-418: The expedition in 523 ended in a disastrous Vandalic defeat. He also allied with the Visigoths , but despite this alliance, Thrasamund failed to aid Theoderic when the Byzantine Navy ravaged the coast of southern Italy, preventing him from coming to the assistance of King Alaric of the Visigoths in the Battle of Vouillé , which contributed to Alaric's defeat. Thrasamund's successor Hilderic (523–530)

5280-401: The 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, only Navarra and Portugal were left to complete the whole peninsula under one monarchy . Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal, after over 400 years as an independent and sovereign nation, in 1580. During this time, the concept of Spain was still unchanged. It was after the restoration of Portugal's independence in 1640 when

5412-422: The 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed west by the Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Ἰαξάρται Iaxártai in Greek, and the Iaxartae in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region. The first mentions of names that historians link with the Alani appear at almost the same time in texts from

Vandal Kingdom - Misplaced Pages Continue

5544-464: The 5th century because the population of the city of Rome had fallen, and the number of Roman soldiers had decreased. The treaty in 442 between Rome and the Vandals seems to have ensured that grain shipments continued. However, in terms of halting hostilities between Rome and the Vandals, that treaty was honored more in the breach than in the observance, and the Romans placed a high priority on recovering North Africa and regaining their control of grain from

5676-419: The 5th century. The Council of Bishops became an important instrument of stability during the ascendancy of the Visigoths . The last vestiges of (Western·classical) Roman rule ended in 472. The undoing of Roman Spain was the result of four tribes crossing the Rhine in 406. After three years of depredation and wandering about northern and western Gaul, the Germanic Buri , Suevi and Vandals , together with

5808-418: The Alani. The 1st century CE Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the Jewish Wars (book   7, ch.   7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a " Scythian " tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72   CE) and defeated the armies of Pacorus , king of Media , and Tiridates , King of Armenia , two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom

5940-434: The Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (* Aryānām ), the adjective * aryāna is related to Airyanəm Waēǰō ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the Avesta . Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the Rhoxolāni ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of

6072-566: The Alans were "formerly called Massagetae ," while Dio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae." It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples , including Sarmatians , Massagetae and Sakas . Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources. The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BCE diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of Shiji (whose author, Sima Qian , died c. 90 BCE). The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with

6204-403: The Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the Alanorsoi ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi . The personal names Alan and Alain (from Latin Alanus ) may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE. The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including

6336-417: The Alans'); Hebrew Alan (pl. Alanim ). Rarer Latin spellings include Alauni or Halani . The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as Allon . The ethnonym Alān is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian * Aryāna , itself derived from the root arya -, meaning ' Aryan ', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples . It probably came in use in the early history of

6468-424: The Byzantines, ending the Kingdom of the Vandals and paving the way for Byzantine North Africa . The Vandals' territory in North Africa (which is now northern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) became a Byzantine province. The best Vandal warriors were formed into five cavalry regiments, known as Vandali Iustiniani , and stationed on the Persian frontier. Some entered the private service of Belisarius. Gelimer himself

6600-539: The Carthaginians and then by the Romans for its abundant silver deposits developed Hispania into a thriving multifaceted economy. Several metals, olives, oil from Baetica, salted fish and garum , and wines were some of the goods produced in Hispania and traded throughout the Empire. Gold mining was the most important activity in the north-west parts of the peninsula. This activity is attested in archaeological sites as Las Médulas (Spain) and Casais ( Ponte de Lima , Portugal). Precipitation levels were unusually high during

6732-402: The Caspian Sea. By the early 2nd century CE the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban . These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces , whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of

SECTION 50

#1732766190211

6864-433: The East. You are the honor and ornament of the orb and the most illustrious portion of the Earth ... And for this reason, long ago, the golden Rome desired you In modern history, Spain and Spanish have become increasingly associated with the Kingdom of Spain alone, although this process took several centuries. After the union of the central peninsular Kingdom of Castile with the eastern peninsular Kingdom of Aragon in

6996-473: The Frexenses Berber tribe under king Guenfan seized a portion of territory south of Thugga and established the kingdom of Dorsale , pushing the Vandals further out of inland. Around the 510s, migrating Laguatan berbers under king Cabaon captured Oea (modern Tripoli ) and Sabratha and established a kingdom there, and began sacking Vandalic territories and destroyed various Vandalic settlements. Thrasamund attempted to crush him and retake his territory, but

7128-574: The Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage." Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance". In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise –  Hunnorum Alannorumque natio , the "nation of Huns and Alans" – and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque . The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that

7260-428: The Mediterranean, Middle East and China. In the 1st century CE, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia , achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea . The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads that Vologases I , the Parthian king between around   45 and 78 CE, in the 11th year of his reign (62 CE), battled Kuluk , king of

7392-452: The Nicenes and ceased persecution once more. Externally, Vandal power had been declining since Gaiseric's death; Gunthamund lost large parts of Sicily to Theodoric's Ostrogoths and had to withstand increasing pressure from the native Berbers , who raided everything inland up to the coast. Gunthamund's successor Thrasamund (496–523) was a religious fanatic and hostile to Nicenes, but he contented himself with bloodless persecutions. In 510

7524-429: The Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture. In 135  CE , the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia. They were eventually driven back by Arrian , the governor of Cappadocia , who wrote a detailed report ( Ektaxis kata Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics . From 215 to 250,

7656-430: The Sueves who had ruled most of the region to Galicia and northern Portugal. In 484 the Visigoths established Toledo as the capital of their kingdom. Successive Visigothic kings ruled Hispania as patricians who held imperial commissions to govern in the name of the Roman emperor. In 585 the Visigoths conquered the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia , and thus controlled almost all of Hispania. A century later, taking advantage of

7788-416: The Vandal Kingdom bears a close resemblance to the Roman provincial administration of Africa. While it was staffed by local Africans, the currency and taxation system were a creative adaptation of Roman models and were similar to those administered by the Romans. Vandal troops were also fashioned similarly to the Roman model. Power and wealth in the Vandal state were led by a military landowning aristocracy, and

7920-435: The Vandal Kingdom broke down. Eudoxia wrote a letter to Gaiseric, begging him to come to her aid. Claiming that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia invalidated his peace treaty with Valentinian, Gaiseric sacked Rome, rescuing Eudoxia, Eudocia, and Eudoxia's younger daughter Placidia (the latter was married to the future unrecognised emperor Olybrius ). Maximus and Palladius were killed by an angry mob while fleeing

8052-402: The Vandal Kingdom prior to the Vandal arrival mostly considered themselves Roman. The Vandals were a minority of the population. The state of the economy overall is hard to assess. The Vandals did not create any gold coins, but taxes were increased to primarily pay for expanding the army. Trade did continue with pottery being exported but at lower levels. Whether grain shipments to Rome continued

SECTION 60

#1732766190211

8184-425: The Vandal Kingdom. The peace treaty of 442 did not halt Vandal raids in the western Mediterranean. Over the next 35 years, Gaiseric used his large naval fleet to loot the coasts of both the Eastern and Western Empires. After Attila the Hun 's death in 453, however, the Romans turned their attention back to the Vandals, who were now in control of some of the richest lands formerly ruled by Rome. In an effort to bring

8316-399: The Vandal Persecution details the "wicked ferocity" inflicted against church property and attacks against "many… distinguished bishops and noble priests" in the first years of the conquest; similarly, Bishop Honoratus writes that "before our eyes men are murdered, women raped and we ourselves collapse under torture." Citing these and other corroborating sources, Merrills has argued that there

8448-476: The Vandals association with senseless destruction through the noun vandalism . The Vandal sack of Rome, piracy in the Mediterranean, and the Roman need to recover control of the grain trade made the destruction of the Vandal Kingdom a priority for the Roman Empire. The Western Roman Emperor Majorian began to organize an offensive in the summer of 458. A maritime force staged from Cartagena in Hispania would take Mauretania and then march on Carthage , while

8580-449: The Vandals entered it while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome . Gaiseric made it his capital and styled himself the King of the Vandals and Alans , to denote the inclusion of his Alan allies into his realm. Conquering Sicily , Sardinia , Corsica , Malta , and the Balearic Islands , he built his kingdom into a powerful state. Averil Cameron suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcome to

8712-418: The Vandals following Gaiseric's death and Huneric's strict religious laws. The Vandals started rapidly losing territory in modern-day western Algeria to the Kingdom of Altava , and by the end of Huneric's rule he completely lost control over the Aurès Mountains to king Masties , who established the kingdom of the Aurès in 483–484. Gunthamund (484–496), his cousin and successor, sought internal peace with

8844-452: The Vandals gained Byzacena , Tripolitania , and part of Numidia and confirmed their control of Proconsular Africa . French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) Algerian War (1954–1962) 1990s– 2000s 2010s to present Historians since Edward Gibbon have seen the capture of North Africa by the Vandals and Alans as the "deathblow" and "the greatest single blow" to the Western Roman Empire in its struggle to survive. Prior to

8976-557: The Vandals into the fold of the Empire, Valentinian III offered the hand of his daughter, Eudocia , in marriage to Gaiseric's son Huneric when both Eudocia and Huneric were children. However, they had not yet wed when in 455, Valentinian III was murdered by accomplices of the usurper Petronius Maximus , who sought control of the Empire. Maximus immediately married Valentinian's widow, the Empress Licinia Eudoxia , and he also canceled Eudocia's betrothal to Huneric and married her instead to his own son, Palladius . Diplomacy between Rome and

9108-425: The Vandals renewed their advance eastward and captured Carthage , the most important city of North Africa. The fledgling kingdom then conquered the Roman-ruled islands of Mallorca , Sicily , Sardinia , and Corsica in the western Mediterranean. In the 460s, the Romans launched two unsuccessful military expeditions by sea in an attempt to overthrow the Vandals and reclaim North Africa. The conquest of North Africa by

9240-408: The Vandals took 500 hostages at Zakynthos , hacked them to pieces, and threw the pieces overboard on the way back to Carthage. In the 470s, the Romans abandoned their policy of war against the Vandals. The Western Germanic general Ricimer reached a treaty with the Vandals, and in 476 Gaiseric was able to conclude a "perpetual peace" with Constantinople. Relations between the two states assumed

9372-485: The Vandals was a blow to the beleaguered Western Roman Empire, as North Africa was a major source of revenue and a supplier of grain (mostly wheat ) to the city of Rome . Although primarily remembered for the sack of Rome in 455 and their persecution of Nicene Christians in favor of Arian Christianity , the Vandals also supported the continued construction of educational institutions in their kingdom. According to historian Richard Miles , North Africa hosted "many of

9504-512: The Vandals, northern Africa was prosperous and peaceful, requiring only a small percentage of the Roman Empire's military forces, and was an important source of taxes for the empire and grain for the city of Rome . The scholar Josephus in the 1st century AD said that North Africa fed Rome for eight months of the year, with the other four months of needed grain coming from Egypt. The Roman need for grain from North Africa may have declined by

9636-402: The Vandals, who made it their first capital. Peace was made between the Romans and the Vandals in 435 through a treaty between Valentinian III and Gaiseric, giving the Vandals control of coastal Numidia and parts of Mauretania . Gaiseric chose to break the treaty in 439 when he invaded the province of Africa Proconsularis and laid siege to Carthage . The city was captured without a fight;

9768-424: The Visigothic king Ataulf). The Visigoths, the remnants of the two tribes who joined them and the Sueves were confined to a small area in the northwest of the peninsula. The diocese may even have been re-established with its capital at Mérida in 418. The Roman attempt under General Castorius to dislodge the Vandals from Cordoba failed in 422. The Vandals and Alans crossed over to North Africa in 429, an event which

9900-532: The Western and Eastern Empires attempted to conquer Africa again with the "most ambitious campaign ever launched against the Vandal state." Primary sources suggest that the fleet numbered 1,113 ships and carried 100,000 men, but this figure has been rejected by modern historiography, with Heather suggesting 30,000 troops and 50,000 soldiers and sailors combined, based on 16,000 Roman soldiers conveyed on 500 ships in 532. Andy Merrills and Richard Miles have asserted that

10032-652: The abolition of the imperial Tetrarchs under the Western Emperor (in Rome itself, later Ravenna). The diocese, with its capital at Emerita Augusta (modern Mérida ), comprised: Before the Punic Wars, Hispania was a land with much untapped mineral and agricultural wealth, limited by the primitive subsistence economies of its native peoples outside of a few trading ports along the Mediterranean . Occupation by

10164-552: The above-mentioned inscription was made): Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and living around Tanais and Lake Maeotis . This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media , and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania ; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon

10296-514: The accompanying persecution of the Nicene church, had political motivations. He notes a "key distinction" between "the anti-Nicene character" of Gaiseric's actions in Proconsularis and the rest of his kingdom; persecution was most intense when it was in proximity to his Arian followers. Heather suggests that Arianism was a means for Gaiseric to keep his followers united and under control; wherever his people interacted with Nicenes, this strategy

10428-667: The advancing migrations of modern humans . In the 40th millennium BC, during the Upper Paleolithic and the last ice age , the first large settlement of Europe by modern humans occurred. These were nomadic hunter-gatherers originating on the steppes of Central Asia . When the last ice age reached its maximum extent, during the 30th millennium BC, these modern humans took refuge in Southern Europe , namely in Iberia , after retreating through Southern France . In

10560-629: The apparatus of the Roman state but not the ability to make it operate to their advantage. In the absence of a well-defined hereditary system of succession to the throne, rival factions encouraged foreign intervention by the Greeks , the Franks , and finally the Muslims in internal disputes and in royal elections . According to Isidore of Seville , it is with the Visigothic domination of Iberia that

10692-680: The city. Timeline The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine offers the only 5th-century report that on 2 June 455, Pope Leo the Great received Gaiseric and implored him to abstain from murder and destruction by fire, and to be satisfied with pillage. The Vandals departed with countless valuables, including the spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem booty brought to Rome by Titus . Eudoxia and her daughters were taken to Carthage, where Eudocia married Huneric shortly thereafter. The sack of Rome earned

10824-540: The concept of Spain started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal. Latin was the official language of Hispania during Roman rule, which exceeded 600 years. By the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct. Even after the fall of Rome and the invasion of the Germanic Visigoths and Suebi , Latin

10956-405: The cord with his sword and escaped. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other booty from both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back to their own country. The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of

11088-402: The country of *Hispa , presumably an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. Hispalis may alternatively derive from Heliopolis (Greek for 'city of the sun'). However, according to modern research by Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the name derives from Phoenician spal 'lowland' . Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia ultima 'farthest western land' by Roman writers since

11220-510: The day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine on December   31, 406). According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led by Goar , crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul. Under Beorgor ( Beorgor rex Alanorum ), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus , when they crossed

11352-482: The depiction of the geography, climate and inhabitants of the peninsula, writing: This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan , Hadrian , and Theodosius to the Empire. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century. However, little headway

11484-474: The emperor Caracalla made a new division which lasted only a short time. He split Hispania Citerior again into two parts, creating the new provinces Provincia Hispania Nova Citerior and Asturiae-Calleciae . In the year 238 the unified province Tarraconensis or Hispania Citerior was re-established. In the 3rd century, under the Soldier Emperors, Hispania Nova (the northwestern corner of Spain)

11616-406: The fall of the city would spell conversion or death for many Nicene Christians. On 28 August 430, three months into the siege, the 75-year-old St. Augustine died — perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. After 14 months, hunger and disease were ravaging both the city's inhabitants and the Vandals outside the walls. The city eventually fell to

11748-455: The former considered heretical. At times this tension invited open rebellion, and restive factions within the Visigothic aristocracy exploited it to weaken the monarchy. In 589, Recared , a Visigothic ruler, renounced his Arianism before the Council of Bishops at Toledo and accepted Chalcedonian Christianity ( Catholic Church ), thus assuring an alliance between the Visigothic monarchy and

11880-453: The history of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula of Isidore of Seville 's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum : You are, O Spain , holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples, the most beautiful of all the lands that extend far from the West to India . You, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also

12012-522: The idea of a peninsular unity is sought after, and the phrase Mother Hispania is first spoken. Up to that date, Hispania designated all of the peninsula's lands. In Historia Gothorum , the Visigoth Suinthila appears as the first monarch under whose rule Hispania is dealt with as a Gothic nation. During the first stages of Romanization, the peninsula was divided in two by the Romans for administrative purposes. The closest one to Rome

12144-621: The liturgy, Homoousian books were destroyed, and almost 5,000 clergy were exiled into the desert. Violence continued with "men and women… subjected to a series of torments including scalping , forced labour and execution by sword and fire." In 483, Huneric issued a royal edict commanding all Chalcedonian bishops in Africa to attend a debate with Arian representatives. In the aftermath of this conference, he forbade Nicene clergy from assembling or carrying out baptisms or ordinations and ordered all Nicene churches to be closed and Nicene property confiscated. These churches were then turned over for

12276-552: The military ruler of the region. However, it has been suggested that the Vandals migrated to Africa in search of safety; they had been attacked by a Roman army in 422 and had failed to seal a treaty with them. Advancing eastward along the African coast, the Vandals laid siege to the walled city of Hippo Regius in 430. Inside, Saint Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the Arian Christian invaders, knowing that

12408-756: The millennia that followed, the Neanderthals became extinct and local modern human cultures thrived, producing pre-historic art such as that found in L'Arbreda Cave and in the Côa Valley . In the Mesolithic period, beginning in the 10th millennium BC, the Allerød Oscillation occurred. This was an interstadial deglaciation that lessened the harsh conditions of the Ice Age. The populations sheltered in Iberian Peninsula (descendants of

12540-660: The most innovative writers and natural scientists " of the late Latin -speaking Western Roman Empire . The Vandal Kingdom ended in 534, when it was conquered by Belisarius in the Vandalic War and incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire ). The surviving Vandals either assimilated into the indigenous African population or were dispersed among the Byzantine territories. The Vandals , under their new king Gaiseric (also known as Genseric or Geiseric), crossed to Africa in 429, beginning

12672-521: The most part, emerged as the qualified personnel to manage higher administration in concert with local powerful notables who gradually displaced the old town councils. As elsewhere in early medieval Europe, the church in Hispania stood as society's most cohesive institution. The Visigoths are also responsible for the introduction of mainstream Christianity to the Iberian peninsula; the earliest representation of Christ in Spanish religious art can be found in

12804-614: The name Hesperia 'western land' had already been used by the Greeks to refer to the Italian peninsula. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jesuits scholars like Larramendi and José Francisco de Isla tied the name to the Basque word ezpain 'lip', but also 'border, edge', thus meaning the farthest area or place. During Antiquity and Middle Ages, the literary texts derive the term Hispania from an eponymous hero named Hispan , who

12936-595: The name Ho-su 闔蘇, reconstructed in ‘Old Chinese’ as ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ, can be compared with Abzoae found in Pliny VI, 38 (see also Pulleyblank (1968), p. 252). Also Humbach (1969), pp. 39–40, accepts the identification, though with some reserve. Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with

13068-544: The native Hispano-Romans. This alliance would not mark the last time in the history of the peninsula that political unity would be sought through religious unity. Court ceremonials – from Constantinople – that proclaimed the imperial sovereignty and unity of the Visigothic state were introduced at Toledo. Still, civil war, royal assassinations, and usurpation were commonplace, and warlords and great landholders assumed wide discretionary powers. Bloody family feuds went unchecked. The Visigoths had acquired and cultivated

13200-490: The oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed. Thus he was succeeded by his son Huneric (477–484), who at first tolerated Nicene Christians, owing to his fear of Constantinople, but after 482 began to persecute Manichaeans and Nicenes. He also murdered many rival members of the Vandalic dynasty. The native Berbers of North Africa who were kept in line during Gaiseric's rule soon began revolts and invasions against

13332-625: The operation was undoubtedly extensive and "deserves admiration for its logistical brilliance." At a naval battle in Cape Bon , Tunisia , the Vandals destroyed the Western fleet and part of the Eastern fleet through the use of fire ships . Following up the attack, the Vandals tried to invade the Peloponnese but were driven back by the Maniots at Kenipolis with heavy losses. In retaliation,

13464-689: The peninsula's population were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the Roman Empire, although there was a native aristocracy class who ruled each local tribe. The latifundia (sing., latifundium ), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system. The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon ( Olissipo ) and Tarragona ( Tarraco ), established Zaragoza ( Caesaraugusta ), Mérida ( Augusta Emerita ), and Valencia ( Valentia ), and reduced other native cities to mere villages. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania served as

13596-448: The political elite replaced and expropriated the largely absentee senatorial aristocracy. Other main sources of income included its takeover of the major grain and oil export region of the Romans, which had hitherto been the source of food for the major city of Rome. The wealth that the Vandal leaders accumulated was spent on luxurious town houses and religious buildings, according to literary sources and archeology. Most people who lived in

13728-408: The population of North Africa, as the previous landowners were generally unpopular. The impression given by sources such as Victor of Vita , Possidius , Quodvultdeus , and Fulgentius of Ruspe was that the Vandal takeover of Carthage and North Africa led to widespread destruction. However, recent archaeological investigations have challenged this assertion. Although Carthage's odeon was destroyed,

13860-503: The population of North Africa. From their invasion of North Africa in 429 onward, the Vandals, who were predominantly followers of Arianism , persecuted Nicene Christians . This persecution began with the unfettered violence inflicted against the church during Gaiseric's invasion, but, with the legitimization of the Vandal Kingdom, the oppression became entrenched in "more coherent religious policies." Victor of Vita's History of

13992-750: The province of Baetica . In an effort to retrieve the region, the Western Roman emperor, Honorius (r. 395–423), promised the Visigoths a home in southwest Gaul if they destroyed the invaders in Spain. They all but wiped out the Silingi and Alans. The remnant joined the Asding Vandals who had settled first in the northwest with the Sueves but south to Baetica. It is a mystery why the Visigoths were recalled by patrician Constantius (who in 418 married Honorius' sister who had been married briefly to

14124-499: The regionally powerful kingdom of Alania . It survived until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century CE. Various scholars regard these Alans as the ancestors of the modern Ossetians. The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into the modern Ossetian language . The name Alan represents an Eastern Iranian dialectal form of Old Iranian term Aryan , and so

14256-637: The royal fisc or for Arian clerical use. While primary sources reveal little about Gunthamund's religious policies, existing evidence does suggest that the new king was "generally better disposed towards the Chalcedonian faith than his predecessor [Huneric] had been" and maintained a period of tolerance. Gunthamund ended the desert exile of a bishop called Eugenius and also restored the Nicene shrine of Saint Agileus in Carthage. Thrasamund ended his late brother's policies of tolerance when he ascended to

14388-402: The so-called Iberian–Roman Humid Period . Roman Spain experienced its three phases: the most humid interval in 550–190 BC, an arid interval in 190 BC–150 AD and another humid period in 150–350. In 134 BC the army of Scipio Aemilianus in Spain had to march at night due to extreme heat, when some of its horses and mules died of thirst (even though earlier, in 181 BC, heavy spring rains prevented

14520-453: The status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The Iberian denarii, also called argentum oscense by Roman soldiers, circulated until the 1st century BC, after which it was replaced by Roman coins. Hispania was separated into two provinces (in 197 BC), each ruled by a praetor : Hispania Citerior ("Hither Hispania") and Hispania Ulterior ("Farther Hispania"). The long wars of conquest lasted two centuries, and only by

14652-409: The street grid remained the same, and some public buildings were renovated. The political centre of Carthage was Byrsa Hill. New industrial centres emerged in towns during this period. Historian Andy Merrills uses the large amounts of African red slip ware discovered across the Mediterranean that date from the Vandal period of North Africa to challenge the assumption that the Vandal rule of North Africa

14784-486: The surviving Vandals fought on. On December 15, 533, Gelimer and Belisarius clashed again at the Battle of Tricamarum , some 20 miles (32 km) from Carthage. Again, the Vandals fought well but broke, this time when Tzazo fell in battle. Belisarius quickly advanced to Hippo , second city of the Vandal Kingdom. In 534 Gelimer, besieged at Mount Pappua by the Herulian General Pharas , surrendered to

14916-457: The survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion. Following the Hunnic invasion in 370, other Alans, along with other Sarmatians , migrated westward. One of these Alan groups fought together with the Goths in the decisive Battle of Adrianople in 378   CE, in which emperor Valens

15048-550: The throne in 496. He reintroduced "harsh measures against the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy" but "worked to maintain positive relations with the Romano-African lay elite," his intention being to split the loyalties of the two groups. Except for Hilderic, most Vandal kings persecuted Nicenes (as well as Donatists ) to a greater or lesser extent, banning conversion for Vandals and exiling bishops. The administration of

15180-467: The time of Augustus did Rome managed to control Hispania Ulterior. Hispania was divided into three provinces in the 1st century BC. In the imperial era, three Roman emperors were born in Hispania: Trajan (r. 98–117), Hadrian (r. 117–138), and Theodosius (r. 379–395). In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius , a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to

15312-525: The time of Augustus , and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces, and nine provinces by the 4th century. More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road . But the impact of Hispania on the newcomers was also substantial. Caesar wrote that the soldiers from the Second Legion had become Hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanici . Some of

15444-455: The total number of Nicene bishops within the Vandal kingdom suffered a decline." Laymen were excluded from office and frequently suffered confiscation of their property. However, diplomatic considerations took precedence over religious policy. In 454, at the request of Valentinian III, Gaiseric installed Deogratius as the new Bishop of Carthage, a position that had been left empty since Quodvultdeus's departure. Heather argues that this accession

15576-458: The variations Asi , As , and Os ( Romanian Iasi or Olani , Bulgarian Uzi , Hungarian Jász , Russian Jasy , Georgian Osi ). It is this name at the root of the modern Ossetian . The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae , a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who had invaded Bactria in

15708-525: Was a time of economic instability. When the Vandals raided Sicily in 440, the Western Roman Empire was too preoccupied with war in Gaul to react. Theodosius II , emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441, but it progressed only as far as Sicily. The Western Empire, under Valentinian III , secured peace with the Vandals in 442. Under the treaty,

15840-409: Was also used in the period of Visigothic rule . The modern place names of Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania . The origin of the word Hispania is disputed. The evidence for the various speculations is based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. The most commonly held theory holds it to be of Punic origin, from

15972-467: Was called Citerior and the more remote one Ulterior . The frontier between both was a sinuous line which ran from Cartago Nova (now Cartagena ) to the Cantabrian Sea . In 27 BC, the general and politician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa divided Hispania into three parts: The emperor Augustus in that same year returned to make a new division leaving the provinces as follows: By the 3rd century

16104-528: Was honourably treated and granted large estates in Galatia , where he lived to be an old man. He was also offered the rank of patrician but refused it because he was not willing to convert from Arianism to Nicene Christianity. In the words of historian Roger Collins : "The remaining Vandals were then shipped back to Constantinople to be absorbed into the imperial army," As a distinct ethnic unit they disappeared, either by fleeing to Spain or by being absorbed into

16236-532: Was intended to improve Vandal–Roman relations as Gaiseric negotiated the marriage of his son Huneric to the Princess Eudocia. However, after Valentinian was killed and Vandal relations with Rome and Constantinople worsened, Gaiseric renewed his oppressive religious policies, leaving the bishopric empty once again when Deogratius died in 457. Heather argues that Gaiseric's promotion of the Arian church, with

16368-468: Was killed. As the Roman Empire continued to decline , the Alans split into various groups; some fought for the Romans while others joined the Huns, Visigoths or Ostrogoths . A portion of the western Alans joined the Vandals and the Suebi in their invasion of Roman Gaul . Gregory of Tours mentions in his Liber historiae Francorum ("Book of Frankish History") that the Alan king Respendial saved

16500-561: Was later renamed "Callaecia" (or Gallaecia , whence modern Galicia ). From Diocletian 's Tetrarchy (AD 293) onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis , and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana , were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius . The name Hispania

16632-503: Was made in the countryside, until the late 4th century, by which time Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. Some heretical sects emerged in Hispania, most notably Priscillianism , but overall the local bishops remained subordinate to the Pope . Bishops who had official civil as well as ecclesiastical status in the late empire continued to exercise their authority to maintain order when civil governments broke down there in

16764-519: Was not as highly developed as it had been under Roman rule, when a goal of higher education had been to prepare gentlemen to take their places in municipal and imperial administration. With the collapse of the imperial administrative super-structure above the provincial level (which was practically moribund) the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted to the Church from the old ruling class of educated aristocrats and gentry. The clergy, for

16896-449: Was split off from Tarraconensis, as a small province but the home of the only permanent legion in Hispania, Legio VII Gemina . After Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform in AD 293, the new Diocese of Hispania became one of the four dioceses —governed by a vicarius —of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul (also comprising the provinces of Gaul , Germania and Britannia ), after

17028-491: Was spoken by nearly all of the population, but in its common form known as Vulgar Latin , and the regional changes which led to the modern Iberian Romance languages had already begun. The Iberian peninsula has long been inhabited, first by early hominids such as Homo erectus , Homo heidelbergensis and Homo antecessor . In the Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals entered Iberia and eventually took refuge from

17160-600: Was the Vandal king who was most tolerant of Trinitarian Christians. He granted religious freedom, and consequently Chalcedonian synods were once more held in North Africa. However, he had little interest in war and left it to his nephew Hoamer. When the Vandals and the Berber kingdom of Dorsale came into conflict yet again, Hoamer suffered a decisive defeat by the Berbers led by Guenfan and his son Antalas . Following this,

17292-577: Was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju. Dutch Sinologist A. F. P. Hulsewé noted that: Chavannes (1905), p. 558, note 5, approves of the identification of Yen-ts’ai with the ‘Αορσοι mentioned by Strabo, as proposed by Hirth (1885), p. 139, note 1 ; he believes this identification to be strengthened by the later name Alan, which explains Ptolemy's "Alanorsi". Marquart (1905), pp. 240–241, did not accept this identification, but Pulleyblank (1963), pp. 99 and 220, does, referring for additional support to HSPC 70.6b where

17424-521: Was threatened. However, Heather also notes that "personal belief must have also played a substantial role in Gaiseric's decision making." Huneric, Gaiseric's son and successor, continued and intensified the repression of the Nicene church and attempted to make Arianism the primary religion in North Africa; indeed, much of Victor of Vita's narrative focuses on the atrocities and persecutions committed during Huneric's reign. Priests were forbidden to practice

#210789